116: How Mapping Your Customer Path Will Improve Your Podcast & Business
In this episode, I am discussing visualizing the customer pathway as the ideal client. The client path is about how to lead your listeners from podcast episodes to products and services. There are a lot of steps we take to get our listeners to become customers, but once they are customers, are we continuing to help guide them as clients?
We’re discussing how to continue the path beyond becoming a client. To widen your customer base, you need to help your client take the next best step in their pathway, as well as continue to deepen the relationship. This is done with an authentic look at how to provide follow-up to clients and listeners, using your podcast as this central pivot point to solve the client’s pain point.
How do you know what the journey people are taking and how do you serve as a guide?
The customer path is a huge piece of what we do at Wild Home Podcasting, and podcast strategy is one of my favorites. I sit and outline entire paths for people as we talk, and we figure out, okay, what's working really well for you? What can you tell the customers or listeners to do? What are you not telling them to do? (And how can we bridge those gaps!)
Together, the client and I map out a path and this makes it so much easier as you start working on other things – how am I going to promote this thing? How am I going to create a new service for this part of the journey? Is what I have good? This mapping really does open up a lot of possibilities and helps you (and the client!) see things in a new light.
What is the next thing clients want more of and how do they get it?
The client path is a huge part of podcast strategy because when we talk about your podcast working for you and none of the things we do is going to work if they don't know what they are supposed to do next.
Sombering, right? Clients and customers cannot just be led to the mountain, shown the path, and left at the base. They need more directions as they strive towards the summit. And I really want you to start having a direction for yourself, so you feel comfortable leading the client. This means you might need to update your own call to actions, right?
I want to start really basic: what are people supposed to do next? Start asking yourself these questions too: what makes sense for them to do next? when you are thinking about your ideal client and where they are in their customer journey, put yourself in their shoes. For example, they're listening to your episode and they say, Yes, this is for me! I love this! I am relating to everything that they are saying. I really want more of this. What is the next thing? What do they want more of and how do they get it? And it doesn't have to be something complicated.
What am I going to create? And does it already exist?
Here at WHP, we have had a couple of opt-ins, which I love. But that does not work for everyone! So I started looking around at our files. I found a checklist for launching, but realized that doesn't really make sense for us right now because most of our clients have already launched their podcast. So I went and looked at the numbers and realized that the things that people really liked were, of course, strategy based and a little bit more deep thinking.
I have an old vision guide I created for a podcast episode, and that did really well. When I say old, it could be pre-pandemic. This vision guide helped inform and helped me decide, okay, what am I going to create? Well, here is a vision guide I can update! It already existed! It was a tool many people enjoyed, and I didn't have to recreate it. I didn't have to come up with anything new or fancy. It’s a tool many customers used on their journey, and it’s something that can continue to provide help on their path.
I think that's really important because nine times out of ten, you already have something amazing that can be packaged a little bit differently and shared with people. So I want you to keep that in mind because I am not about creating a whole bunch of new work for yourself, and I know you're not either. So let's not make this more difficult than it has to be. You probably already have something amazing, right?
Call to Actions as Connections
You’re ready, you’re pumped, you are ready to connect with your listeners and clients. You want to have an enticing call to action. But you don’t drop it once and expect it to flourish. This needs to be in your show notes and part of your description. You need to talk about it during your episodes. You need to mention it!
A few examples: a quiz, a download, a checklist, a guide, a free resource, a Facebook group, Close Friends on IG, and/or an opt-in (e.g. an email list).
We’re looking towards something that is going to build on your content; something that is going to encourage and excite people to take the next step. And once they do that, you need to make sure that you don't leave them hanging! Once they take that next step, we need to make sure that we are consistently giving them steps to the next thing, and then the next thing!
For example, please go and make sure that all your episodes are linking to your website. Bonus points if they link to the direct blog post related to your episode, but you're going to find that's going to work a lot better and people are not going to get lost
This is why I say all the time: when you start to think about podcast strategy, it really does make you think about everything else! The podcast to me is the foundational piece. It's the bottom of the mountain, and if we don't have a stop for our ideal client, say, a third of the way up, they're not going to know what to do. They're not going to know what's next. So we have to remember that part of the path is connection. The clients and listeners want to connect with you. They want more of you. They want more of what you're teaching and what you're talking about, whether that is an email list or a Facebook group or close friends on Instagram (what I love to do), you need to find your place to create that connection so you can keep cultivating that connection, that relationship. And so you have a way to keep sharing with them, keep reminding them like, Hey, I'm up here at the top of the mountain. Just keep on coming.
Ready to make your podcast more strategic, your marketing easier to produce, and your business more profitable? The doors are open for the Strategic Podcast Academy!
The Strategic Podcast Academy is here to help your podcast and your business work together to make your business more profitable and to free up more time for yourself. This monthly membership will cover topics such as Customer Path Planning, Content Planning for Sales, Podcast SEO, Creating Connection with Your Listeners, Social Media, Email Marketing for Your Podcast, PR for Podcasters and so much more! The doors are open now! Join here!
Links:
Ep. 115: Simplifying Your Marketing: How Your Podcast Can Help You Create ALL of Your Content
Ep. 101: Six Simple Ideas to Connect with Your Listeners Beyond Your Podcast
102: Make Friends in Your Inbox! Using Email to Create Connection with Liz Wilcox
Ep. 96: How to Set Goals for Your Podcast
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The Transcript for Podcast Your Business:
116: How Mapping Your Customer Path Will Improve Your Podcast & Business
Caroline: The customer path is a huge piece of what we do, and podcast strategy is probably one of my favorites because I will actually sit and outline like entire paths for people as we talk and we kind of figure out, okay, where do people like to hang out? What's working really well for you? What can you tell them to do? What are you not telling them to do? We literally map out a path and it just makes it so much easier as you start working on other things to kind of know, okay, how am I going to promote this thing? How am I going to create a new service for this part of the journey? Do I need to is what I have good? It really does kind of open up a lot of possibilities and helps you see things in a new light.
Are you ready to start a strategic podcast for your business and share your message in a way that feels wildly authentic? This is the place. Welcome to Podcast Your Business, where each week I share the strategy behind having a podcast that helps grow your business. I'm Caroline Hull, podcast manager, strategist and consultant, and I've seen the power of podcasts can have for your business. Let's get started.
Do you know what the journey is that people are taking when they listen to your podcast? I love using the word journey because it sounds like we're all grabbing our backpacks and our hiking boots, and I really miss hiking because I haven't been hiking since before my hip surgery. But I mean, sometimes we've got to visualize it, right? And so I want to imagine that we are a mountain. Our business is a mountain. At the top is our products or services. And we want people to climb the mountain, but they're not going to do it all by themselves, right? Like, they're not just going to stand at the base and go, Yeah, that looks great. I'm going to climb up. They are going to need a backpack. They're going to need some tools, right? They're going to need some things to help get them started up that mountain. And one of those tools is your podcast, right? So the podcast we're establishing ourselves as the authority. We're meeting our clients where they're at with their pain points. We're telling them that we're the authority, but what do they do once they have all of that? What is the first step that they're going to take to start climbing that mountain? And is that clear? And so, yes, today we are diving into the client path and how to lead your listeners from podcast episode to products, services. I really love this mountain analogy. I think this is going to have to go into some material now. I'm really excited about it. I love mountains. I've always wanted to climb a mountain, but I'm just not I'm not very good. I like the climbing part of it. Okay. I'm afraid of heights. I'll say it. I don't love heights. I don't love being up high. I don't like being on edges of things. We've done a lot of hiking over the years and we'll hike these amazing places and there'll be these amazing views.
And like my husband or my children are all running toward the edge and I'm sitting there freaking out. I'm like, No, we reached the top. We're good. Let's go back down. Like, I don't need to. I don't need to go to the edge. That's fine. But I do love mountains a lot and I love that analogy. A client path is a huge part of podcast strategy because when we talk about your podcast working for you and none of the things we do is going to work, if they don't know what they are supposed to do next. And I really want you at the end of this episode to start having a direction for yourself and maybe kind of go and update your call to actions, right? Like that's that's what this is really all about is called actions and there's funnels and there's a lot of other pieces to it. But I want to start really basic just with like what are people supposed to do next? And so I want you to ask yourself these questions like what makes sense for them to do next? So when you think about your ideal client, where they are in their customer journey, and let's say they're listening to your episode and they say, Yes, this is for me, this is what I- you know, I love this. I am relating to everything that they are saying. I really want more of this. What is the next thing? What do they want more of and how do they get it? And it doesn't have to be something complicated. Like, I do not want you to walk away from this and be like, Oh, I have to go completely rethink all of my things.
Let me give you a really good example. So we have had a couple of opt-ins for a while, and I've kind of been hemming and hawing about them and just not really sure what was the right one. Like, I used to have a checklist for launching, but that doesn't really make sense because I actually do not work with a lot of people who haven't launched a podcast. And usually the people that I do work with who haven't launch a podcast don't do it themselves. So checklist is not the thing. And then we created a few other things like, what did I do? Oh, I went and looked at the numbers and realized that the things that people really liked were were of course, strategy based and a little bit more deep thinking, if you will. I have an old vision guide that did really well that I had created for a podcast episode. I mean, we're going way, way back like years. I mean, it could be pre-pandemic, I'm not even sure so long ago.
And so that really helped inform and helped me decide, okay, what am I going to create? And, you know, it was cool as I already had the thing. It literally already existed. I didn't have to recreate it. I didn't have to come up with anything new or fancy. I already had something that worked perfectly and that made a lot more sense when I thought about my customers journey that they're on, the tools that they already have, and what they need next. And so I was able to create a new option. And so I think that's really important because nine times out of ten, you already have something amazing that can be packaged a little bit differently and shared with people. So I want you to keep that in mind because I am not about creating a whole bunch of new work for yourself, and I know you're not either. And so let's not make this more difficult than it has to be. You probably already have something amazing, right?
Did you know that your podcast can be so much more than a hobby? It can be a way for you to attract your ideal client and establish himself as an authority in your field. But you need a strategy. And that's why we have created the Strategic Podcast Academy, a monthly membership designed to help you build a strategy for your podcast. You can grow your business and get off the content creation hamster wheel. With support from myself and a community of like minded podcasters, you will create a strategic plan for your podcast and start implementing impactful changes. During our time in the monthly membership, we're going to cover topics such as customer path planning, content planning for sales, podcast SEO, creating connection with your listeners, email marketing for your podcast, and so much more. So if you are an online business owner, coach, consultant or service provider, and you're ready to have a podcast that supports your business, then this Strategic Podcast Academy is for you-- head to wildhomepodcasting.com/membership to join today.
So once we kind of know, okay, what makes sense for them to do next? How do your listeners start becoming part of your world and what do they want more of? Then we can start capturing these listeners, right? That sounds really aggressive, but now we can start getting their email addresses or directing them to certain services or products, right? And so you want to decide how you're going to take them from podcast into your funnel. When I say funnel, I am not a funnel expert, but when I say funnel, what I'm really thinking of is a path. And that's why I like to think of this--and I say customer path so much because I'm a visual learner, I'm a visual thinker-- and so for me, I actually like see like somebody walking down the street or climbing up the mountain, right? And there's stops along the way, right? There's different levels of awareness. There's different levels of, okay, I need this here, but now I'm ready for this next thing. So I'm going to climb up a little bit higher, right? And so really think about what that is, what that funnel is and how you're going to get them into that. And for me, it's an opt-in. For me, it's either joining my close friends list or signing up to grab the free audit guide. Right? Those two things work perfectly for what I need to happen next. And so what you want to make sure that you do with your podcast in order for them to see that once they have their backpack and their shoes on.
Okay, I'm ready for the first step. You want to have an enticing call to action. And so this needs to be in your show notes and seems to be in your description. You need to talk about it during your episodes. You need to mention it. And you know, some examples. I've kind of given a few, but they can be a quiz, a download, a checklist, a guide, a free resource, a Facebook group, something that is going to build on your content, write something that is going to encourage and excite people to take the next step. And once they do that, like, you need to make sure that you don't leave them hanging. Like, once they take that next step, we need to make sure that we are consistently giving them steps to the next thing, the next thing. And this is why I say all the time that when you start to think about podcast strategy, it really does make you think about everything else, because the podcast to me sometimes can be like this foundational piece, right? It's the bottom of the mountain, and if we don't have a stop for them, a few, say, feet up. But that's not correct. Correct at all. If we don't have a stop for them, like a third of the way up, they're not going to know what to do. They're not going to know what's next. And I think a lot of this, too, like when we talk about the path, part of what's on that path is connection. Right. They want to connect with you. They want more of you. They want more of what you're teaching and what you're talking about, whether that is an email list or a Facebook group or like I like to do to close friends, you need to find your place to create that connection so you can keep cultivating that connection, that relationship.
And so you have a way to keep sharing with them, keep reminding them like, Hey, I'm up here at the top of the mountain. Just keep on coming. Right. And so when we think about that customer path, it does not end with the podcast and it does not end with that first click that they make. I will say this I'm not a huge fan of-- I don't tend to find that it works very well for people to say book a call or like a direct link to the service from the podcast. You have to be really good at priming your audience If you are going to have your main call to action, your main step on the path, right? Be something that big. I really do love like these little connection points. I think they make a big difference. Now, that does not mean that you cannot talk about your services or anything that you're selling on your podcast. You absolutely can, because probably some of your listeners are already on the path and they're here for it, right? Like they're climbing up the mountain. And if you say you've got this thing and they're ready for it, they may go a little faster, right? So there is room for that. But what I'm talking about is like that main call to action that is everywhere. Like I said, show notes, description, wherever it can be.
And this is why it's also really, really important to make sure that your podcast is linking to your website and not somewhere else. We do not want people getting lost in taking the wrong trail, right and going to your host's website instead of your website. We want them to come to our website and see our things climb our mountain. And so like, if you don't do anything else today, please do this. Please go and make sure that all your episodes are linking to your website. Bonus points if they link to the direct blog post related to your episode, but you're going to find that's going to work a lot better and people are not going to get lost and they're not going to be like, I don't understand what I'm supposed to be doing right? And so the customer and path is a huge piece of what we do in podcast strategy. It Is probably one of my favorites because I will actually sit and and outline entire paths for people as we talk and we kind of figure out, okay, where do people like to hang out? What's working really well for you? What can you tell them to do? What are you not telling them to do? We literally map out a path and it just makes it so much easier as you start working on other things to kind of know, okay, how am I going to promote this thing? How am I going to create a new service for this part of the journey? Do I need to? Is what I have good? It really does kind of open up a lot of possibilities and helps you see things in a new light.
So I love it. And here's the cool part. We're actually going to be talking about this in a whole lot more detail and mapping these out together in the Strategic Podcast Academy, which is my new monthly membership designed to help you build a strategy for your podcast so you can grow your business and get off the content creation hamster wheel, which I talked about last week when I talked about simplifying your marketing. And I wanted to create a space for people to come together and talk about podcasting, but I wanted to make sure that we did it in a super, super meaningful way because I wanted everybody who in a group to walk away with a strategy or to stay in forever and keep building their strategy either way. But, you know, it was really important to me that this is like an actionable membership. You're going to walk away with a strategy for your podcast and an understanding of how your podcast works with your business. And we're going to talk about a lot of things, but the very first training that we're doing in June is going to be the customer path and really mapping this out, not just podcast-link, but what happens beyond that and how can we make that really clear? Make it really simple and automated and we're going to map it out together and you can get feedback on your customer path once you've created it and we can kind of workshop it a little bit. So I'm really excited about it. If there's just something that you're interested in, you can head to StrategicPodcastAcademy.com. We will put the link in the show notes.
Again, we're going to be starting at the beginning of June, so if you want to join us, now is the time and we're going to be talking about a lot of other things in there as well, such as podcast SEO, creating connection with your listeners, email marketing for your podcast, PR, all the things, and they're all very actionable. So things that you can implement, so you can start to see the growth because that's so important, right? So go check it out. I'm so excited to hear more about what path you create for your customers, and so please let me know. You can email me or head to Instagram to hang out and I will be back next week with a new episode. Thank you for listening to Podcast Your Business. For more podcasting tips, follow us on Instagram at Wild Home Podcasting. If you're are ready to launch, level up or grow your podcast, head to WildHomePodcasting.com to get started today.
